Playing Dangerous ↠ ||RDR2 // Arthur Morgan X Reader||

chapter 4; shades of cool

'You are unfixable. I can't break
through your world,
'cause you live in shades of cool.'

-

The atmosphere that morning returning back to camp was not dissimilar to the abundant chill in the open air.

Yourself and Boxer plodded slowly behind Arthur and Phantom. You allowed the shire horse a long rein as you slumped tiredly into your saddle, breath pluming out on the air in front of you, your mind trailing backwards constantly to the events of the last night – how the mad mixture of things seemed as if they would cross the expanse of a few weeks, not just one evening.

Boxer's hooves thudded passively in the long grass, as you eventually entered the thicket of forest surrounding Horseshoe Overlook The morning light danced and dappled between the canopy of green leaves, that swished and swayed on the breeze. The movement cast perfect flickers of light across the muddy forest floor from last night's downpour.

"Who's there!" came the shout of Charles, who stood squinting through the trunks of the trees at the pair of you.

"Just us." Arthur called out on behalf of the pair of you, gesturing his hand flippantly and coaxing Phantom on those last few steps to reach the camp.

Reaching the other side of the trees, the camp right in front of you – you felt disheartened that you suddenly felt no joy returning here. There was a grey-cloud feeling hanging over your very being, something that shrouded you in doubt and seemed to whisper 'there is no place for you here'

Swinging his legs over the saddle, Arthur jumped down from Phantom who now had his hungry head down, grazing the sweet green grass by the tethering post. Like some kind of alien visitors, yourself and Arthur were greeted with curiosity by all the members of the Van Der Linde gang – especially when they saw your bandaged leg.

"Oh my, miss (name)" Miss Grimshaw gasped, as she approached you. Your current seat on Boxer's back made your leg the perfect height for the woman to fuss and flurry over. The look Arthur must've received from Miss Grimshaw could only of been deadly, by the way Arthur's eyes seemed to widen and he raised his hands in defence.

"Don't look at me!" he protested, shaking his head to the black haired woman. Miss Grimshaw scoffed loudly, hands on her hips as she watched Arthur remove the heavy leather western saddle from Phantom's sweat-covered back.

"You were meant to be lookin' out for her, Mr Morgan!" she scolded, her lips pursed in an annoyed fashion. Arthur continued untack Phantom, draping his saddle over the post – it was as if he was going about busying himself to avoid the matter at hand.

"What happened?" Dutch quickly interjected, dark brown eyes furrowed as he smoked slowly on his first cigar of the day, with surely more to follow.  His question made you falter, for some unknown reason. You felt guilty – like if you opened your mouth to answer one tiny detail – then you'd accidentally spill everything that had happened between you and Arthur.

"Wolves." Arthur quickly exclaimed in your place, and from your right you heard a bemused bit of laughter, from none other than Mr John Marston.

"Wolves? Join the club!" he joked, still sniggering along as he looked over at you with that uniquely scarred face. "You let yourself get attacked by a wolf in front of Arthur? Be careful, he might rib you for it for the rest of your days." John winked playfully, and then smirked slyly at Arthur. Mr Morgan just huffed to himself, clearly not in the mood for any jokes. Shamefully, you felt you were rather to blame for his sour mood.

"Oh come on Miss... you need to get some rest," Miss Grimshaw finally sighed, ushering Bill and Kieran over to you. "Boys, get her down off that horse – and help her to her bed."